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Jamie D. Grant is now a regular contributor to iTricks Raves with an enhanced version of his reviews from MagicFriday.blogspot.com.

What The Audience Sees:

”Dude, I am loving the card tricks! Anyone who says they don’t like card tricks just needs to come over and see my man here. This guy is good with a capital “G”. This Friday, for example, he had me pick a card, any card, and sign my name across the face. Well, he puts it into the deck and then, BOOM, it’s not in the deck anymore. Nuh-unh. He had some crazy-%## spirits come fly over from Amazing Man Land and steal the card out of the deck somehow, probably eat a few souls on the way back, and dropped my card into an impossible location- the box the cards came from!!! Are you hearing me here? My card went into the deck- I saw it- and then a second later it’s in the ^&$&&$^ box instead!!! Jamie is off the gri-hi-zid with this stuff!!! I love it!

How It Went:

Believe it or not, Card to Box was the first trick I ever learned. No kidding. I was in Grade 3 or something and I have no idea how I learned it. All I remember is that it involved a f*%ce that took about 18 steps and then I would go through the deck, pull out three incorrect cards and state that one of them was their card. While they were looking of the three cards on the table, I would quickly find their card, pull it out, and put it into the box, and walk across the room and throw the box as far away as I could. You wouldn’t believe the number of times it worked….Once! But man, it killed that kid.

Anyways, I always loved that trick and here comes David Forrest with one of the (if not simply the) best solution I’ve ever come across. It’s easy, fast, resettable, and amazing. I dare say it’s perfect.

I don’t think I’ve done one card trick as many times as I did Encased on Friday. I did this trick over and over and over and every single time it fried people. I mean, it’s just so clean. I don’t know even what to tell you, really. There were so many reactions that it’s hard to pinpoint any from the others- they were all great. You know its funny- this is a card to Impossible Location plot but for whatever reason it plays out more than you would think. I mean, Card to Wallet is obviously a wonderful effect but there’s something special about Card to Box. Maybe it’s because it’s a bit more organic and the fact that all the items are in full view the entire time? Or maybe it’s just me. Whatever the encase (ha ha. Get it? Encase? Instead of “whatever the case”, I said, “whatever the en…”ahem..carrying on then), this Friday went down as one of the all time great card days.

Best Lines:

”Nonononononononono!!”

-This guy was backing up as he said that, lol.

”You are the greatest magician to ever live.”

-That just made me laugh.

Angry Bob Rating:

For those of you reading this article for the first time, Angry Bob is a co-worker who has an understanding of some magic because his uncle was a magician. Angry Bob knows that TT’s exist, for example, but he has no desire to become a magician himself. He also has an anger management problem that can be experienced first hand if he can’t figure out how a trick is done. A high rating means he has no idea.

This was an interesting one. I made the mistake of not having Angry Bob sign the card so he thought he knew the method right away. As I pulled his card from the box, he immediately grabbed the deck and started going through it . Once he saw his card wasn’t there, he said, “%#^^#. Now it’s good.” So I think a 5/5 is in order but a lesson was learned, regardless- get them to sign it! If you don’t, they will just think you have two of the same card.

My Rating:

Well, as you can tell, I love this effect and think David has done an awesome job with it. The only downside I came across was that it didn’t play as easily if I was standing. Don’t get me wrong, I made it work when there were no tables around, but it wasn’t as good as when I could freely toss the box aside and later have the card found in it. Also, you can’t do this with a borrowed deck (which is the perfect trick). So, we’ll give it a 9.5/10 and that half point loss is given begrudgingly- in my heart, gimmicked or not, and table or not, this is a ten.

The JDG Tip:

I took an old Joker and cut out a piece from the centre and used that instead of the Sharpie Marks idea. If you have the DVD, you’ll know what I mean. It’s in no way necessary but it made me feel a lot better and sometimes that’s worth a lot!

iTricks Ideas:

I actually perform this directly after a colour-changing deck routine so that there are 3 cards in the box- one of which is a different coloured Joker. When I say, “I put 3 cards in the box. Strangely, one of them is different…” they assume I’m talking about the other coloured back; when I reveal that I’m actually talking about their selection- Boom! Awesome.